Lecavalier still a hero in Tampa

FILE - In this Jan. 27, 2013 file photo, Tampa Bay Lightning center Vincent Lecavalier looks toward the action during the second period of an NHL hockey game against the Philadelphia Flyers in Tampa, Fla. The Lightning are buying out the contract of Lecavalier, a move that will create salary cap space and make one of the stars of the franchise's only Stanley Cup champion a free agent next month. (AP Photo/Chris O'Meara, File)

Philadelphia Flyers Claude Giroux (28), left and Vinny Lecavalier (40) during preseason game against the New Jersey Devils. (Times Staff / ERIC HARTLINE)

TAMPA, Fla. — The press conference was running long Tuesday, Vinny Lecavalier saying many of the same things he’d said the previous day in South Florida about returning to his longtime adopted home by the Bay, and speculating on what it would be like going on the ice Wednesday night to face his old Lightning team.

It was about then that a question about Lecavalier’s ongoing charitable efforts in the area came up, focusing not only on his foundation but the institution that one day should serve as his legacy.

“Obviously it’s meant a lot,” Lecavalier said of his relationship with the Vincent Lecavalier Pediatric Cancer and Blood Disorders Center in the New All Children’s Hospital in neighboring St. Petersburg. “I’ve met a lot of (young patients) through the years, had some great relationships with them. I had an email yesterday from one of the girls ... she’s one year (into) remission. It’s nice to get news in Philadelphia about the kids here who battle through so many things.”

It’s a different time in professional sports, this era of salary caps and multi-layered free agency movement. Economic realities almost dictate career movement, even for most athletes who grow attached to the sports city in which they’ve grown to become heroes.

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But how many of them have community monuments dedicated in their name that they have to leave behind?

As Thanksgiving approached in the Tampa Bay area, the Lightning, the club’s fans and a community who loved Lecavalier as much for the charitable work he oversaw as for the Stanley Cup he led the Lightning to nine years ago, thought it was about time it all should be recognized.

So when he does take the Tampa Bay Times Forum ice Wednesday night, Lecavalier will be welcomed with a video montage of his career, the presentation of a “Community Hero Award” in his honor ­— and almost certainly, a prolonged standing ovation from the people he’ll likely one day come back to join for good.

Always for good.

“It might be early to say it, but Tampa would definitely be a place to retire for sure,” said Lecavalier, whose parents and sister also still live in Florida. “I was here 14 years. They always supported me, they were always great to me and the team. With the circumstances the way things happened I would think they’d support me.”

The circumstances were such that Lecavalier’s departure wasn’t his idea. The 11-year, $85 million contract he’d signed with the Lightning in 2009 carried a cap hit of more than $7.7 million through the 2019-20 season, and so when the Lightning had a chance via the new CBA compliance buyout option to shed contracts, Lecavalier’s was an obvious choice for Tampa Bay.

Though he said he was prepared for it, Lecavalier admitted Tuesday that hearing it made official last summer, “was really tough.” But picking up and signing on as a free agent for Philadelphia was not.

“Where we live, we love the area,” Lecavalier said, “and that made things a lot easier. So the adjustment went really well.”

What Lecavalier and Co. has brought to Haddonfield, N.J., however, can’t be compared to what he has left behind.

“To me, this community loves Vinny Lecavalier,” said All Children’s Hospital Foundation Vice President Sylvia Ameen. “This community was extremely sad to see him go. There were many tears that were shed. When the news came that Vinny was leaving, it was like a cloak of sadness came over the community and us. But Vinny very quickly made a phone call and reassured us that while he was leaving, he would be as committed as ever to our program; he said that while he was moving physically, his heart would still be with all the patients and the staff members that he has always supported.”

Who could have predicted such a relationship when Lecavalier was drafted by a six-year-old moribund franchise in a non-hockey market in 1998? He was the 18-year-old phenom that then-Lightning owner Art Williams optimistically dubbed “the Michael Jordan of hockey.”

He grew quickly into a sports hero as admired as any in Florida since Dan Marino was in his prime. That level of love hit its zenith when the Lightning beat the Flyers in the 2004 Eastern Conference finals, and went on to win the Stanley Cup over Calgary.

It was shortly thereafter that Lecavalier began to exercise a commitment to charitable work that he said was instilled in him at a young age by his parents. It resulted in his Vincent Lecavalier Foundation claiming the cancer and blood disorders center as its crowning mission.

It began with a $3 million gift that Lecavalier provided to the hospital in 2007, the money earmarked for the construction of the pediatric center, which takes up the bulk of the seventh floor of All Children’s new campus, which opened in 2009. Ameen said that only happened after Lecavalier did “a lot of due diligence” in meeting with hospital officials and formulating a plan for the center and its future.

Due to that gift, Lecavalier was honored by the league in 2008 with its NHL Foundation Player Award. Other fundraising efforts were supported by Lecavalier’s foundation, corporate partnerships and other grants and gifts. Lecavalier cut the ribbon himself on the cancer center in the new hospital in 2010.

“Naming opportunities are one thing, but getting involved personally is something else altogether,” Ameen said. “He chose to be a champion of children with cancer.”

Ameen said that meant Lecavalier would show up “without any media or cameras” and do personal visits. Dressing and redressing in isolation caps and gowns as he went along, she said, “he’d do room-to-room tours. That’s a very difficult thing to do.”

“It’s how strong they are,” Lecavalier said Tuesday about the young patients he’s visited. “Sometimes we have a bad day and they’re always smiling. When I go to the hospital and meet these kids, (it’s) what they teach you by just being with them, they don’t have to say anything. To see how strong they are and how they’ve been through so much, (yet) they’re still smiling and being positive.”

Lecavalier established personal relationships with some of the families, and got his family involved in his new venture.

“His sister (Genevieve) still volunteers here every week,” Ameen said. “And his parents (Yvon and Christianne) volunteer when they’re down here in the winter. ... I think it’s amazing to have your family so involved in something like this.”

Lecavalier’s bond with the center really took hold as his immediate family grew. He and his wife, Caroline, have three children.

“You have your own kids and you start realizing it could happen to you, it could happen to anybody, it could happen to me,” Lecavalier said. “Cancer affects these kids. When I first got my daughter, that love you have for your kids, to think something wrong or bad could happen to them, it definitely scares you.”

With that, a fast end was called to the press conference. The schedule for this first return home was a tight one. That’s how it is for heroes who move on, but leave a legacy in the place in which they will always truly belong.

“I can’t predict how I’m going to feel tomorrow,” Lecavalier said. “To actually play against the Lightning, I don’t know how I’m going to feel. But it’s going to be a special night and I’m real excited about it.”